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Chris Hardwick
Christopher Ryan Hardwick (born November 23, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television host, writer, producer, and podcaster. He hosts Talking Dead,2 an hourly aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, as well as Talking with Chris Hardwick, a show in which Hardwick interviews prominent pop culture figures, and The Wall, a plinko-inspired gameshow on NBC. From 2013 to 2017, he hosted @midnight with Chris Hardwick, a nightly comedy-game show series on Comedy Central. Hardwick originated the role of Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages during its premiere run in Los Angeles (2005–2006).[citation needed]In 2011, he began hosting Ministry of Laughs, a BBC America Britcom block, and Talking Dead, a live hour talk show on AMCfollowing episodes of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. In 2013, Hardwick hosted Talking Bad, a live half-hour talk show on AMC following the final eight episodes of Breaking Bad, and in 2016 he started to host Talking Saul for Breaking Bad's spin-off, Better Call Saul. He is also known for performing with Mike Phirman in Hard 'n Phirm, hosting Singled Out, Wired Science, Web Soup, and as the voice of Otis the Cow in Back at the Barnyard, replacing Kevin James. He also created Nerdist Industries, operator of the Nerdist Podcast Network, and home of The Nerdist Podcast, which later left the network with Hardwick and was renamed to ID10T with Chris Hardwick. His podcast has 966 episodes as of 2018. Early Life Hardwick was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the son of professional bowler Billy Hardwick (1941–2013) and Sharon Hills (née Facente), a real estate agent in Pasadena, California.3 His maternal grandfather was Italian American, and opened a bowling alley where his parents first met.4 Hardwick was raised in his mother's Roman Catholicfaith.5 At four years old, he met then-struggling comedian and television personality Joan Rivers and became lifelong friends with her.6 Hardwick grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was the 1983 Memphis City Junior High Chess champion.7 He later attended St. Benedict at Auburndale high school, later moving to Regis Jesuit High School in Colorado, and then spending his senior year at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.8 Hardwick studied philosophy at UCLA, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity during his freshman year and graduated in 1993.8 He was roommates with Wil Wheaton for some time.910 They met at a showing of Arachnophobia in Burbank, California.9 Career Hardwick was a DJ on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM during the mid-1990s.8 In the fall of 1998, he starred in the UPN comedy Guys Like Us; the show aired 12 episodes before it was cancelled in January 1999.11 Hardwick appeared in Rob Zombie's horror films House of 1000 Corpses and Halloween II.8 He also made a small appearance in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.11 In 2010, he was featured in the film The Mother of Invention. He made guest appearances on such shows as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Married... with Children,8 Boy Meets World8 and Zoey 101, and was a guest commentator on VH1's I Love the '90s, which aired in 2005.8 He appeared as a television host on hip hop group Little Brother's 2005 album, The Minstrel Show.12 Hardwick is a contributing writer for Wired (since 2007), wrote for Web Soup and Back at the Barnyard,8 and he made regular appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Chelsea Lately. As part of what Hardwick calls his "nerd media empire", he runs Nerdist Theater, an entertainment space at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles.131415 He entered into an equity partnership with GeekChicDaily in June 201116 to form Nerdist Industries.17 Hardwick published a self-help book, The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life), with Penguin Publishing, in late 2011. In February 2012, GeekChicDaily fully merged with Nerdist Industries and became Nerdist News, with Hardwick operating as Chief Creative Officer.18 On July 10, 2012, Nerdist Industries was acquired by Legendary Entertainment. Hardwick was given the title of co-president of Legendary's digital business.19 In February 2018, Hardwick announced that he would be rebranding The Nerdist Podcast to ID10T and that he would be leaving Nerdist since the contract with Legendary came to an end in 2017.20 Voice-over workedit Hardwick voiced Alexander Hamilton in The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd and Otis in the Barnyard series (the character was originally voiced by actor Kevin James in the movie Barnyard: The Original Party Animals). He provided the voice for Green Arrow/Oliver Queen on The Batman and Lego Dimensions, Glowface in The X's, and Sokka in The Legend of Korra,21 as well as voice work for The Minstrel Show from the rap group Little Brother, and narration for the introduction video for the Flash animation game George Plimpton's Video Falconry. Between May 2013 and July 2016, he voiced "Craig the Snake" on Sanjay and Craig. He also voiced the character Vaughn in Telltale Games's Tales from the Borderlands.11 In 2017, Hardwick guest voiced as the villain, Klaxxon, for the special podcast episode of Futurama released on the Nerdist podcast. Category:Cast Category:Voice Actors And Actress